Bolivia Weekly » Education & Youth

U.N. Bolivian Poverty and Education-Level Report Unveiled

Matthew Grace — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:38:11 +0000

In Bolivia, more than half of the population—around 5.2 million people—live in poverty, and 2.7 million of those people live in extreme poverty.

This data was contained in a 2011 report about human development from the United Nations Development Program, presented yesterday in the Bolivian foreign ministry. It recommended that Bolivia improve its policies against poverty rates that remain high. It also recommends that the country improve its education and environmental policies.

According to the report, the average number of years of education attained in the country is 8.6 years. Non-indigenous men belonging to the wealthiest 20 percent have 14 years of education, on average; indigenous females in the poorest 20 percent have only two years of education, on average.

A quarter of Bolivian children do not finish primary school, half do not finish high school, and almost 14,000 die each year from preventable or treatable diseases.

To learn more in Spanish see:

http://www.lostiempos.com/diario/actualidad/economia/20111214/27-millones-de-bolivianos-viven-en-extrema-pobreza_153228_318604.html

El Alto University To Get $10 Million Per Year

admin — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 01:31:20 +0000

A new accord between the Bolivian government and the Public University of El Alto (UPEA) has set forth that the government will contribute Bs. 70,000,000 per year (or $10 million) towards the university’s budget. The University rector Dámaso Quispe said that with this convetion, “the conflicts have ended,” and promised to end their roadblocks. The new accord will not affect the amounts currently paid by the government to other public universities. The government authorities also promised to help secure financing for health science laboratories, technology, agricultural machinery, and communication sciences.

To learn more in Spanish see: http://www.erbol.com.bo/noticia.php?identificador=2147483952867

Student March in El Alto Damages Toll System

Matthew Grace — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:20:21 +0000

Yesterday, students, faculty, and staff of the El Alto Public University marched from El Alto to La Paz to demand more funding. Today, the administrative management of the Bolivian road authority is demanding that rector of the school, Damaso Quispe, and four university leaders pay for damages that occurred during the march..

Forty-five people were injured in clashes with the police during the march, and 57 were arrested. Damages to the toll motorway that connects El Alto to La Paz were estimated to cost Bs.155,000 (US$22,000).

The toll system had just been upgraded to process vehicles automatically and was in a testing phase; now, because of damage and theft of computers, workers are once again collecting tolls, this time in booths with broken glass windows.

To learn more in Spanish see:

http://www.la-razon.com/version.php?ArticleId=142108&EditionId=2731

Cochabamba’s Missing Children

admin — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 15:04:40 +0000

In Cochabamba every month on average 48 children are reported missing according the the Human Trafficking division of the Bolivian police unit FELCC. In the nine months of 2011, 437 were reported missing in Cochabamba alone according the Human Trafficking director Rocío Rivas. The majority of these cases involve girls between the ages of 12 and 17 who run away from their families due to domestic violence or want to elope with a boyfriend. The next largest segment are children under the age of five who become lost or are kidnapped. Rivas said that despite the large number of reported disappearances, the majority of these cases are solved and the children located.

To learn more in Spanish see: http://www.lostiempos.com/diario/actualidad/local/20110924/desaparecieron-437-menores-en-9-meses_143004_294552.html

Evo Receives Doctorate Degree

admin — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 10:18:46 +0000

Yesterday President Evo Morales received an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Havana for his “work fighting for dignity of the oppressed peoples of Latin America,” said Morales. Morales is in Cuba before continuing on to New York for a meeting of the Organization of American States. Morales spoke about the fight of Latin American people for their independence and for the “indigenous that gave them their birth, despite the policies of extermination that the colonizers used against them. Morales mentioned how indigenous leaders like Bolivia’s Tupac Katari and Bartolina Sisa headed such movements and paid with their lives. Morales said, “There were times of harmony between people and Mother Earth, in which property belonged to all, not to certain groups. The fight continues for the total independence from the bonds of the past that try to convert us into slaves.” Morales said that when the US forces were occupying bases in the Chapare jungle, specifically in Chimoré, Bolivian presidents had to request permission to land in their own territory.

To learn more in Spanish see: http://www1.abi.bo/#

Evo Criticizes Universities, Urges Indigenous Education

admin — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 11:04:55 +0000

Yesterday President Morales spoke out against Bolivia’s universities and specifically against the Universidad Mayor de San Simón (UMSS) while attending the inauguration of the inauguration of the Casimiro Huanca Quechua Indigenous Bolivian University in the small jungle town of Chimore. Morales complained of decadence in the university system and excessive partying among students. “What kind of university do we want with these indigenous people? We want new professionals who are in the side of the people, with their own identity. The universities that we now are distanced from the people, it appears that some private and public universities represent the reactionary sector and I’m not afraid to say it.” Morales said that he respected the university system’s autonomy but since their money came from the state the should respect the people more.

President Morales, speaking to his Quechua audience in Spanish, told them that he wants indigenous speakers to write their thesis projects in their native languages, and urged Aymara, Guarani and Quechua universities to make this change. He said that indigenous education should help liberate and de-colonize the nation. He criticized the Chimore Federation (a coca-growers union) for the light turn out at the event yesterday. “I am going to recommend to the ministers and governnors that if projects at an indigenous university are written in Spanish, that they be re-written. They know that students will just be wasting their time writing in Spanish,” said Morales in Spanish.

The new school has two buildings with 32 classrooms and was built by the government at a cost of $1 million. The university began in 2008 and has roughly 500 students who study agronomy, forestry, aquaculture, and food engineering.

To learn more in Spanish see: http://www.lostiempos.com/diario/actualidad/politica/20110912/evo-vierte-duras-criticas-a-la-umss_141400_290530.html

70 Bolivian Space Agency Professionals go to China

admin — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 11:05:47 +0000

In October 70 professionals from the Bolivian Space Agency will travel to China for a training on how to operate the Tupac Katari satellite that Bolivia has purchased from China. The satellite will be put in orbit in the end of 2013 or beginning of 2014 and will cost Bolivia $295 million dollars, $255 million of which it is borrowing from China. Officials said that construction of the satellite is on schedule. President Morales is traveling to China in a few days to work on this and other agreements with the Chinese.

To learn more in Spanish see: http://www2.abi.bo/#

Bolivia’s Young Runners & Marathon Potential

admin — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 12:56:33 +0000

Yesterday, radio Radio Erbol hosted its 6th annual Children’s Races in La Paz’s Hernando Siles stadium. The races featured hundreds of children from the ages of 9 to 12 from all over the country competing in the La Paz’s withering altitude of 3,637 meters (11,932 feet). The respective girls and boys winner were Blanca Barreto and Erwin Jesús Ticona who ran the one kilometer course in close to 5 minutes. Yesterday also marked the London marathon, dominated unsurprisingly by Kenyans. Many point to three main factors in Kenya’s success: high altitude, poverty, and a strong running culture. Bolivia certainly has these first two elements but their running culture lags far behind that of Kenya. It was not always so, during the Incan empire the entire civilization depended on the work of runners called Chasquis to deliver royal messages and supplies between different way-stations (tambos) in the Andean mountains. These incredible runners allowed the Incan emperors to eat freshly caught fish from the ocean in their mountain stronghold of Cusco and deftly command massive armies thousands of kilometers away over jagged peaks and dense jungle. Bolivia has produced Olympic marathoners like Policarpio Calizaya Huaca who represented Bolivia in three summer Olympics. Bolivian Juan Camacho also competed in three Olympic marathons and posted a blazing 2:17:49 time in a marathon in the Netherlands in 1984 which holds to this day as the fastest marathon ever run by a Bolivian. Remarkable as this Bolivian best of 2:17:49 may be, the record has held for 27 years and Bolivia Weekly urges aspiring young Bolivian runners to set their sights on this and other goals. Bolivia shares all the geographic, physiological and social factors that Kenyan uses to dominate the distance running world but lacks the kind of public support and enthusiasm for running found in Kenya. Bolviia has every potential to once again become dominant in distance running should the government and people decide to prioritize this healthy, competitive and culturally relevant sport once again for the Chasquis of the future.

To learn more in Spanish see:

http://www.erbol.com.bo/noticia.php?identificador=2147483943386

Teachers and Police Collide on La Paz-Oruro Highway

Allyson Herbst — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 19:23:49 +0000

Conflict broke out this morning between rural teachers and police when officers tried to break up blockades on the highway connecting La Paz to Oruro.

Television reports state that police threw tear gas at demonstrators who responded with small explosives, stones and bottles.

This police action succeeded in breaking up the road block until more teachers arrived a short time later. A report from ATB states that the news outlet’s vehicle was significantly damaged as a result of stone throwing.

Bus departures from La Paz to cities in the nation’s interior have been suspended since 6:00 AM, according to sources in the Information office in the La Paz bus terminal.

This strike, initiated by the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB) last week and which demands, among other things, a salary increase of 15 percent instead of the 10 percent proposed by the government, has intensified in the last few days. Yesterday demonstrations occurred in Cochabamba, Santa Cruz and Tarija, among other cities, and La Paz was once again the epicenter with marches, protests and roadblocks.

TV network Unitel reports that the city of Cochabamba, too, awoke this morning to highways blocked by workers.

This past Thursday, Minister of the Presidency, Óscar Coca, called representative workers to a meeting at 2:00 PM to discuss the salary issue, but the delegates did not attend the meeting. According to the government, the salary increase is the only issue yet to be resolved on the list of COB demands.

COB leaders stated yesterday that they will only meet with President Evo Morales, who is currently in Tarija for civic celebrations and will not be able to hold any meetings until Saturday.

To learn more in Spanish, see:

http://www.la-razon.com/version.php?ArticleId=128713&EditionId=2499

Rift Between Evo and Largest Labor Union Widens

admin — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 12:41:06 +0000

Relations between the Movement to Socialism government and the country’s largest labor union have hit an all-time low today. The union (COB) bussed its members to La Paz yesterday and surrounded the Bolivian federal government buildings in a giant march, battling police and launching thunderous explosives (petardos). The COB was infuriated when the Bolivian government announced a 20% minimum wage increase for private workers and 10% increase for public workers; the COB was not consulted on these numbers and they demand at least a 30% increase.

President Morales and his spokesman Ivan Canelas have antagonized and belittled the COB, calling their growing marches a failure and claiming they are politically motivated by Morales’ opponents. The government news source referred to the COB’s La Paz march in the following terms, “Thursday violent acts of rapid vandalism converted La Paz into a vehicular Hell of explosions, shouts, and destruction of public property.”

President Morales has consistently refused to meet with the COB to discuss their demands and today all of Bolivia’s public schools and universities announced that they would join the COB’s general strike along with the COD union. Students across Bolivian will not be going to school today and Bolivia’s public schools will remain closed indefinitely. Now, with the universities closed to study to any academic activity, the students, staff and faculty will take to the streets to put further pressure on the government. Only one university department of the UMSS will remain open because foreign accreditors are visiting the country to audit the university’s international accreditation.

The Morales government, which before coming to power had led countless marches of equal or larger scale, publically degraded the marchers and painted them as a selfish, ignorant rabble that served only to make the life of drivers and shop keepers in La Paz miserable. The government news agency ABI quoted a La Paz shop-keeper who swore at the marchers and called them “little horses”. Miners associated with the COB set off dynamite by the doors of several government buildings, blowing them off their hinges.

President Morales remains the president of the seven coca-growing federations of Chaparé which is affiliated with the COB but the coca federations have declined to participate in the protests. These same unions have been protesting recently against spiraling inflation and high food prices in Bolivia which are sure to continue rising if the unions achieve their demands of increasing public wages by 20% and the national minimum wage by 30%. It is unclear whether this adversarial attitude will give way to an openness to dialogue or whether the COB marchers will further radicalize their measures in response to the Government’s refusal to legitimize their demands.

To learn more in Spanish see:

http://www3.abi.bo/#

http://www.lostiempos.com/diario/actualidad/politica/20110408/paro-y-suspension-de-clases-en-cochabamba_120639_240686.html